Tom Peterkin: It’s trying for voters as the media scrum are blind sided by First Minister’s clever handling

Published on Friday 10 February 2012 00:00

THE controversy over Alex Salmond’s attempt to cast himself as a rugby pundit has generated more spin than a scrum-half’s pass.

The unseemly fall-out from his attempt to invite himself on to various BBC sports programmes to share his “expertise” on back-row moves and line-out blocking sent the SNP spin machine into a frenzy.

Unsurprisingly, this has had little to do with whether or not Salmond’s tactical analysis would have enlightened armchair rugby supporters. (Although the First Minister would have doubtless welcomed the chance to explain to his fellow presenters Jeremy Guscott and Andy Nicol what sort of lines of running are required to outfox a drift defence.)

What it boils down to is that Salmond – like most other successful politicians – is always desperately keen to get on the telly. That is why the First Minister’s office made it known to the BBC that Salmond would be available for Murrayfield punditry.

Salmond’s burning desire to take to the airwaves has been evident throughout his political career. His opponents at Westminster were impressed by his habit of going to Victoria Station late at night to pick up the first editions of the Scottish papers. That would enable him to gen up on the next day’s news so that he could offer his services to BBC Scotland’s early current affairs programmes first thing in the morning.

His obvious delight at finally making it on to Desert Island Discs last year was an indication of how seductive he finds the idea of breaking free from purely Scottish TV and addressing a UK-wide audience.

Therefore the Calcutta Cup presented a golden opportunity for the First Minister to boost his profile north and south of the Border. Although politics was not to be discussed, his appearance would have been a timely reminder of the constitutional battles on the way.

The fact that a high heid yin – or to use Salmond’s language a “gauleiter”– at the Beeb eventually decided that it would be inappropriate for him to appear presented another political opportunity for the First Minister.

As one Labour MSP said yesterday: “This gives him an excuse to have a go at the BBC, to say that he is being hard done by and to put down a marker to try and make sure that the SNP gets what he feels is a fair deal. You just feel that he has chosen the wrong subject to do this.”

For what seemed like hours, yesterday’s briefing with the First Minister’s official spokesman was dominated by the issue with interminable chatter about who invited who to appear on which programmes and why the BBC was in the wrong. Perhaps it says something about the Holyrood village’s priorities that it was almost as an afterthought that the discussion finally got round to the implications for Scottish jobs of awarding Forth crossing contracts to China.

Comments

There are 15 comments to this article

Order by:

• Newest first
• |
• Oldest first

Page 1 of 1

• 1
• Show all

15

Canton-eze

Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 11:18 PM

"creatively" and "navigable" ... natch.

• Report Unsuitable

14

Canton-eze

Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 11:16 PM

Pending Moderation #13 my ărse. Was it the fact that I mentioned those sacrosanct names Peterpan of the above article? Or the other one whose first three letters designate "a disordered mind"? This site, apart from being technically and aesthetically totally crăp, is censorship writ large. A techno-savvy 14-year-old could program creativelty this rubbish in a naviagble format. And the English language is well and truly snookered here. Lackey pro-uniion journalists have their say without proper right of reply from its reading public. Even to quote their names registers a resounding "nyet".. More Soviet than the Soviet Union.. One fine day this edifice once known as The Scotsman will surely crumble and collapse.

• Report Unsuitable

13

Canton-eze

Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 11:03 PM

Comment removed by moderator

12

HorridHenrietta

Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 09:54 AM

8 Danielrober2 - I answered you on the other thread here it is again incase you missed it: ==================================================== Danielrober2.................... I suspect Ruth Davidson was a bit tongue in cheek with regards to Alec.S might rugby playing body. Though I am just guessing ===================================================== HorridHenrietta - If the SNP were petty & nit-picking like Ruth Davidson and the Labour Party they could easily make a big issue out of the inappropriateness of Ruth Davidson making a reference to the shape of Alex Salmond's body. I was quite shocked when I heard her making the comment about Alex Salmond having the body of a rugby player. It is totally unacceptable can you imagine what would have happened if Alex Salmond had made some reference to the shape of her body or the shape of any females body ===================================================Danieltober2......................... Seriously are you saying that Alec.S has body shape issues. Well I never knew he was such a sensitive soul and delicate creature. Is this why he is not turning up to work as the Scottish Devolved Government First Minister? ==================================================== HorridHenrietta - That is not what I am saying. I am saying that it is inappropriate for anybody in the work place to make a comment derogatory or otherwise about a person's body shape. In most work places you would be disciplined for such inappropriate behaviour and perhaps even charged with sexual harassment or bullying. As soon as you start taking the *holier than thou* position and being hyper-critical of others behaviour & use of language then you have to ensure that you are beyond reproach. In this case Ruth Davidson has left herself wide open to criticism. I was horrified when I heard her say that Alex Salmond had the body of a rugby player

• Report Unsuitable

11

HorridHenrietta

Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 09:44 AM

If everyone on these rugby programmes only talks about the technique of rugby then it must be a pretty boring programme. I would imagine Alex Salmond would have been commenting on the whole event and the benefit that has for the city. This event is not just about a load of men tackling on another on the pitch for about an hour the event is of enormous economic benefit to the city. Hundreds of people come to the match from England I think it would be very appropriate and good for business if Alex Salmond was on TV welcoming these visitors. Perhaps the the BBC, Ruth Davidson, Johann Lamont etc thinks it's good for business & tourism to promote the idea that we are anti-English.

• Report Unsuitable

10

bieldmaster

Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 03:03 AM

There are many examples over the years where the S.N.P.have (still are) attempting to manipulate the B.B.C. for their own particular form of spinpropagannda . First Minister Alex Salmond plus Michael Russell are the main perpetrators with regard to such attempted Hi-Jacking of the U.K wide doyen,s of responsible media.

• Report Unsuitable

9

Tiny

Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 12:48 AM

I have an idea for a new business Firstly I am going to start it in an area of the Market where sales are in substantial decline. Secondly I am going to annoy at least fifty per cent of the Market and ensure they don't buy my product. Thirdly I am going to ensure that nobody can trust my product as it will largely consist of smoke and mirrors with a huge amount of unsubstantiated claims. Finally I am going to insult my customers intelligence at every opportunity. My business name is the Scotsman

• Report Unsuitable

8

Danielrober2

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 03:59 PM

I would have thought an issue might be extra spending on sport in Scotland, rather than spilt milk ego politics.

• Report Unsuitable

7

fourbyfour

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 02:31 PM

This newspaper is really offensive to an SNP voter like myself. Why they think it is a good idea to alienate such a substantial number of people like myself beats me.

• Report Unsuitable

6

douglas-home rule

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 01:09 PM

The BBC's problems are all self made. They appear to think that they can censor debate in Scotland while broadcasting into Scotland, unfettered opinion from Cameron, Milibant etc. Cameron has been on Countryfile recently and gave his opinion on Englands football manager. Why is this different from Salmond on rugby?

• Report Unsuitable

5

flyinngscott

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 11:47 AM

No Tom, its trying for the voters to have to read biased p!sh, day after day. Some might buy the headline grabbing spin, but most arent that daft. It does no one a favour, when even the onionist commenters must struggle to get an arguable line.

• Report Unsuitable

4

Bradged

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 09:19 AM

Such Nat fury. The mistake BBC made was responding positively to the hawking around that was taking place. The unintended benefit we've all had, is that we now know the First Minister trollopes himself around the broadcasters looking for appearances. That would be fine if it was news or politics programmes he was trying to get into - it is after all his trade, and in fact he is rather good at it - but this was sport. Why couldn't he give us the weekend off from his jowly views?

• Report Unsuitable

3

Caadfael

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 07:25 AM

Same old, same old space filling droning .... Snoooooooooooooooor!

• Report Unsuitable

2

Proud Doonhamer

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 01:07 AM

Nothing new here, just the same lies we read each and every day... Typical Anti-Scotsman bile.

• Report Unsuitable

1

mogatrons

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 12:31 AM

Tom, evidently you didn't watch coverage of First Ministers questions then.......if you had, you wouldn't have bothererd writing this article.................Ultimately it doesn't matter who popped the idea of the FM appearing prior to the Calcutta cup match. What matters is the BBC stepped into a bear trap of their own making by pulling him off air for spurious reasons, betraying their bias later by then having the PM appear to comment on the England football management fiasco....Game set and Match to the FM, the silence from the BBC on this is deafening...............as for jobs going to China, if you'd put down Johann Lamonts script for a moment and listened to the FMs answer all would've been clear to you.

• Report Unsuitable

Order by:

• Newest first
• |
• Oldest first

Page 1 of 1

• 1
• Show all

Logged in as:

Comment here. Start typing your comment here:

Post comment

Please adhere to our Community guidelines

Your view

Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.